Conference of Catholic Bishops/Migration and Refugee Services (USCCB/MRS) and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS), who have partnered for over 35 years in our work on behalf of refugee children and families. In 2006, BRYCS became a project of USCCB/MRS. From 2001-2013, BRYCS served as the Federal Office of Refugee Resettlement's (ORR) national technical assistance provider on refugee c
hild welfare. Serving as a bridge between service providers aiding refugees and public child welfare professionals in the United States, BRYCS became an invaluable informational resource in the areas of child welfare, family strengthening, education, youth development, early childhood, and refugee populations in general. During this time, BRYCS conducted national needs assessments, cross-service trainings and roundtable discussions; presented workshops at hundreds of conferences; consulted on numerous complex cases; implemented a child welfare training program for the over 50 programs funded by ORR's Division of Unaccompanied Children's Services; and responded to thousands of technical assistance requests from refugee resettlement agencies, mainstream services agencies, such as child welfare, juvenile justice, and schools (including ORR's Refugee School Impact Grant (RSIG) recipients), and ethnic-community based organizations. In 2009, the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC) honored BRYCS in with their Award for the Advancement of Cultural Competency in Child Maltreatment Prevention and Intervention. Today, BRYCS maintains the nation's largest online collection of resources related to refugee and immigrant children and families and continues to provide quality technical assistance to those that serve newcomer families.
